Search results for "Blood"
showing 10 items of 5199 documents
The effects of whey protein with or without carbohydrates on resistance training adaptations.
2015
Background Nutrition intake in the context of a resistance training (RT) bout may affect body composition and muscle strength. However, the individual and combined effects of whey protein and carbohydrates on long-term resistance training adaptations are poorly understood. Methods A four-week preparatory RT period was conducted in previously untrained males to standardize the training background of the subjects. Thereafter, the subjects were randomized into three groups: 30 g of whey proteins (n = 22), isocaloric carbohydrates (maltodextrin, n = 21), or protein + carbohydrates (n = 25). Within these groups, the subjects were further randomized into two whole-body 12-week RT regimens aiming …
Two-dimensional echocardiographic evaluation of left ventricular ejection fraction by the ellipsoid single-plane algorithm: a reliable method for ass…
1995
The reliability of two-dimensional (2D) echocardiographic estimation of left ventricular ejection fraction (EF) is commonly recognized, but no satisfactory data are available about the accuracy of low or very low EF values determined by 2D echocardiography (ECHO-EF). The purpose of our study was to assess the reliability of low ECHO-EF values obtained using a simple time-economical algorithm such as the ellipsoid single-plane area-length method. Radionuclide angiography (RAD-EF) was taken as the standard of comparison. We studied 59 consecutive patients (31 women and 28 men) referred to our echocardiographic laboratory. Both 2D echocardiography and radionuclide angiography were blindly perf…
Clinical correlates of renal dysfunction in hypertensive patients without cardiovascular complications: the REDHY study
2009
Our study was aimed to assess the clinical correlates of different degrees of renal dysfunction in a wide group of non-diabetic hypertensive patients, free from cardiovascular (CV) complications and known renal diseases, participating to the REDHY (REnal Dysfunction in HYpertension) study. A total of 1856 hypertensive subjects (mean age: 47+/-14 years), attending our hypertension centre, were evaluated. The glomerular filtration rate (GFR) was estimated by the simplified Modification of Diet in Renal Disease Study prediction equation. A 24-h urine sample was collected to determine albumin excretion rate (AER). Albuminuria was defined as an AER greater than 20 mug min(-1). We used the classi…
Insulin resistance and glomerular hemodynamics in essential hypertension
2002
Insulin resistance and glomerular hemodynamics in essential hypertension. Background Arterial hypertension is an important cause of end-stage renal failure. Insulin has been shown to modify glomerular hemodynamics in hypertensive subjects. The aim of this work, therefore, was to observe the relationships between renal hemodynamics and insulin resistance in arterial hypertension. Methods Sixty-two non-diabetic hypertensive patients and 25 healthy normal subjects were studied. Renal plasma flow and the glomerular filtration fraction were determined by renoscintigraphy and the insulin sensitivity by an oral glucose test. Results Renal plasma flow in hypertensive subjects was lower than expecte…
Misclassification of subjects with insulin resistance and associated cardiovascular risk factors by homeostasis model assessment index. Utility of a …
2009
Different methods are available for assessing insulin sensitivity in the fasting state. However, insulin resistance (IR) is initially a postprandial disturbance; and usually, when basal (fasting) disturbance appears, the process has been in progress for some time. Our aim was to investigate if a postprandial measurement, performing an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), is more sensitive than fasting values. We wished to identify early IR states in healthy, nonobese individuals and ascertain if this situation was associated with other cardiovascular risk factors. A total of 90 nonobese, nondiabetic, and nonsmoker individuals were studied. They were divided into 3 groups according to IR stat…
Plasma concentration of asymmetric dimethylarginine, an endogenous inhibitor of nitric oxide synthase, is elevated in hyperthyroid patients.
2002
Cardiovascular manifestations are frequent findings in patients with thyroid hormone disorders. Nitric oxide (NO) plays a key role in vascular, endothelial-mediated relaxation. NO is synthesized from L-arginine by NO synthase, an enzyme inhibited by endogenous compounds, mainly asymmetric dimethylarginine [asymmetric N(G),N(G)-dimethyl-L-arginine (ADMA)]. The aim of our work was to investigate whether plasma L-arginine and dimethylarginine concentrations and NO production are altered in hypo- and hyperthyroid patients, compared with control subjects. L-arginine, ADMA and symmetric dimethylarginine were analyzed by HPLC. NO was measured as plasma nitrite plus nitrate (NO(x)) concentration by…
Microalbuminuria, renal dysfunction and cardiovascular complication in essential hypertension
1996
To evaluate the prevalence of microalbuminuria (albumin excretion rate, AER) in a wide hypertensive population, and to evaluate any relationship with cardiovascular damage and renal dysfunction.A transversal study.In 383 hospitalized Caucasian essential hypertensives (198 men, 185 women) of mean age 44 +/- 0.5 years and mean clinic blood pressure 170.3 +/- 0.95/ 103.4 +/- 0.47 mmHg, metabolic parameters, serum creatinine level (Cs), creatinine clearance rate (Ccs), 24 AER and plasma renin activity (PRA) were measured. Furthermore, each patient underwent 24 h ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) and echocardiography to measure left ventricular mass, which was indexed both by body surf…
Prenatal exposure to organochlorine compounds and neonatal thyroid stimulating hormone levels
2010
It has been suggested that prenatal exposure to some organochlorine compounds (OCs) may adversely affect thyroid function and may, therefore, impair neurodevelopment. The main aim of this study was to examine the relationship of cord serum levels of 1,1,1-trichloro-2,2-bis(4-chlorophenyl)ethane (4,4′-DDT), 1,1-dichloro-2,2-bis(4-chlorophenyl)ethylene (4,4′-DDE), β-hexachlorocyclohexane (β-HCH), hexachlorobenzene (HCB), four individual polychlorobiphenyl (PCB) congeners (118, 138, 153, and 180), and their sum, with neonatal thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) levels in blood samples in a mother–infant cohort in Valencia, Spain. This study included 453 infants born between 2004 and 2006. We mea…
Conditional Self-Entropy and Conditional Joint Transfer Entropy in Heart Period Variability during Graded Postural Challenge.
2015
Self-entropy (SE) and transfer entropy (TE) are widely utilized in biomedical signal processing to assess the information stored into a system and transferred from a source to a destination respectively. The study proposes a more specific definition of the SE, namely the conditional SE (CSE), and a more flexible definition of the TE based on joint TE (JTE), namely the conditional JTE (CJTE), for the analysis of information dynamics in multivariate time series. In a protocol evoking a gradual sympathetic activation and vagal withdrawal proportional to the magnitude of the orthostatic stimulus, such as the graded head-up tilt, we extracted the beat-to-beat spontaneous variability of heart per…
Optical coherence tomography-based retinal vessel analysis for the evaluation of hypertensive vasculopathy
2013
Purpose Evaluation of retinal vessels in cardiovascular disease traditionally relies upon funduscopy, but more recently digital photo analysis has expanded the spectrum. As spectral domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) allows an in-vivo assessment of retinal tissue and its vessels on a histological scale, our study aimed at using this tool for the analysis of the retinal vasculature. Methods Circumferential peripapillary OCT scans (3DOCT-2000; Topcon Inc., Tokyo, Japan), with centration on the optic nerve head, were taken from 20 eyes (20 participants) with normal blood pressure and 20 eyes (20 participants) with arterial hypertension above 120 mmHg (mean blood pressure). The diameter …